Hydrocarbons, such as oil and gas, are commonly obtained from subterranean formations that may be located onshore or offshore. The development of subterranean operations and the processes involved in removing hydrocarbons from a subterranean formation typically involve a number of different steps such as, for example, drilling a wellbore at a desired well site, treating the wellbore to optimize production of hydrocarbons, and performing the necessary steps to produce and process the hydrocarbons from the subterranean formation.
After drilling a wellbore that intersects a subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formation, a variety of downhole tools may be positioned in the wellbore during exploration, completion, production, and/or remedial activities. For example, temporary packers may be set in the wellbore during the completion and production operating phases of the wellbore. In addition, various operating tools including flow controllers (e.g., chokes, valves, etc.) and safety devices such as safety valves may be deployed in the wellbore. Such tools are often lowered downhole by a wireline, a work string, or a slickline and may be configured with a fishing neck to facilitate recovery at a later time. Once such downhole logging service is completed, the tool may be retrieved with the wireline, work string, or slickline.
As noted above, a slickline can be used to lower and retrieve wellbore tools from the wellbore. A slickline generally includes a metal wire based cable or nonelectric cable with a polymeric coating to protect the cable from mechanical wear during deployment and retraction from the wellbore. Recent developments in the field of slicklines have been focused on realizing greater mechanical strength through the use of composite slicklines. These slicklines are constructed from unidirectional carbon fibers suspended in a thermoplastic matrix material. Unfortunately, such carbon fiber reinforced composite slicklines can suffer from structural defects, such as carbon fiber breakage, fiber delaminating or de-bonding from the matrix, and inconsistent volumetric fractions of the carbon fibers, among others.
Such defects are often not measurable after the manufacturing process, but can grow quickly during dynamic tensile loading of the slickline during use in the field. This makes it difficult to determine if a composite slickline cable can be reused after each service. The gradual cable degradation might reduce the minimum breaking strength of the cable during downhole tool logging services. Furthermore, corrosion caused by exposure to fluids in the borehole, bending or kinking, and insufficient or excessive torque also can degrade the mechanical strength of a slickline cable so that the maximum allowable tool-string weight has to be reduced. Accordingly, it is desirable to inspect a composite slickline cable before or after each field logging service to avoid undesirable effects that may require additional service for fishing a lost tool-string from the bottom of the wellbore.